From DEBRA@OLN.comlink.apc.orgMon Sep  4 09:21:56 1995
Date: Sat, 02 Sep 1995 10:18:00 +0100
From: Debra Guzman <DEBRA@OLN.comlink.apc.org>
Reply to: beijing-conf@tristram.edc.org
To: beijing-conf@tristram.edc.org
Subject: WCW: Human Rights in China

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   EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE ON THURSDAY AUGUST 17, 1995, AT
   1:00PM GMT To be released at press conference in
   cooperation with Novib On August 17, 1995, at
   Nieuwspoort, The Hague, Netherlands, 14:30-15:30pm

   Human Rights in China releases reports detailing patterns
   of severe abuses of the human rights of Chinese women,
   recommends Chinese government enforce laws and permit
   rights advocates to defend women's rights.

   Since the People's Republic of China ratified the
   Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
   Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in 1980, hundreds of
   thousands of women have been abducted and sold, millions
   of baby girls have "disappeared," uncounted millions of
   women have been coerced into having abortions and
   sterilizations and millions of women have lost their jobs
   or failed to get jobs due to widespread discrimination.
   Women suffer from a growing epidemic of violence against
   them and have borne the brunt of the negative effects of
   China's economic reform policies.

   HRIC believes that China has not lived up to its
   responsibility to implement the provisions of CEDAW. When
   women's rights have been violated the government has not
   intervened to protect them, while officials themselves,
   with the sanction of central government policy, have
   committed gross abuses of women's rights to health,
   bodily integrity and life in pursuit of population
   control targets. In one of the reports, "Caught Between
   Tradition and the State: Violations of the Human Rights
   of Chinese Women," HRIC shows how government policies
   have not only reflected but have actually reinforced
   traditional prejudices against women and girl children.

   A second report, "Fighting for their Rights: Chinese
   Women's Experiences Under Political Persecution,"
   presents individual stories and personal testimonies of
   women who have been imprisoned and, in some cases
   tortured, for exercising their rights to freedom of
   expression, or have struggled against the harassment and
   intimidation routinely used against the families of
   prisoners of conscience. These women's stories highlight
   the government's continuing restrictions on freedom of
   expression, information and association for all Chinese
   citizens, controls which have severely hampered efforts
   to expose and fight against the kinds of violations of
   women's human rights described above.

   Some positive developments have been seen in the run-up
   to the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women,
   which Beijing will host in September. The authorities
   have permitted the establishment of a few relatively
   independent new women's org anizations, which have begun
   addressing issues such as domestic violence and the
   problems of migrant and rural women and have set up
   hotlines and counselling centers, mostly in Beijing.
   There has been a bit more transparency about some of the
   problems women face, with the notable exception of
   information about abuses relating to the population
   control policies, including the problem of female
   infanticide. But these developments are far from
   sufficient to address the continuing gross abuses of
   women's human rights.

   Although the government has passed a number of laws
   protecting women's rights, culminating in the Law on the
   Protection of Women's Rights and Interests in 1992, these
   have generally lacked any meaningful mechanisms for
   enforcement. Furthermore, ot her laws, especially
   provincial regulations on the population control
   policies, have sanctioned unacceptable abuses of the
   human rights of women and girls.

   HRIC calls on the Chinese government to amend laws on
   women's rights to make discrimination against women
   actionable, to enforce laws protecting women from abuses
   and to repeal laws and regulations which sanction
   violations of women's human rights . Specifically, we
   recommend that the government: (1) prosecute buyers of
   women and provide appropriate services for victims of
   trafficking; (2) eliminate articles of the Criminal Code
   which provide lesser penalties for crimes against family
   members than against strangers and recognize the concept
   of domestic violence in the law; (3) end the current
   birth quota system in the population control policies,
   prosecute officials who abuse the human rights of women
   and girls in the implementation of these policies and
   investigate the fate of the millions of "missing girls";
   (4) enforce laws and regulations governing work safety
   and protection for all workers and assist in prosecuting
   cases of discrimination against women in employment and
   education; (5) relax controls on freedom of expression,
   information and association to permit women to speak out
   about the abuses they suffer and organize to combat them;
   and (6) mark the FWCW by releasing all women prisoners of
   conscience and ending harassment of the families of all
   such prisoners.

--------------------------------------------------------------
For more information or to receive copies of the reports,
please contact Human Rights in China at hrichina@igc.org or
212-661-2909 or write HRIC, 485 Fifth Avenue, 3rd floor, New
York, NY 10017. Human Rights in China is a non-profit,
independent, non-governmental organization founded by
Chinese scholars and scientists in 1989. HRIC reports
violations of human rights in the PRC and promotes human
rights education among Chinese people at home and abroad.